W.I.T.C.H

Chapter 27

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Kandrakar

Elyon stared at the creature in front of her.

"Blunk?"

"Yep."

"You were Minnio?"

"Yep. Blunk spy! And now Blunk action hero! Ha ha!"

Elyon continued to stare at Blunk.

"Oh, I can't wait to hear Caleb explain this one."

Meridian

"Blunk? You chose Blunk?"

"Yes, now stop saying that!"

"Why Blunk?" Hay Lin asked.

"We were training him to be a spy after we took down Phobos." Caleb said, rubbing his brow.

"Remember how desperate he was to help?" Taranee said.

"Like him or not," Aldarn said, "He is a good smuggler, and he was eager to learn. I didn't have much to do after Phobos was defeated, so I started giving Blunk lessons. Teaching him the tricks of the trade, so to speak. He was a natural."

"Couldn't you have started him out with something easier then Kandrakar?" Raythor asked.

"I wanted to, but then Minnio showed up and the opportunity was to good to pass up. So I gave him the Mage ring and sent him off."

"Well it's a good thing you did." Will said. "He's out best hope right now."

Kandrakar

Elyon and Blunk, who had put the Mage ring back on and now once again looked like Minnio, moved through the Kandrakar hallways, making sure not to be seen. Blunk led the way, while Elyon could only helplessly follow. It was making her quite uneasy.

"Blunk, do you know what you're doing?" she asked.

"Blunk know Kandrakar like back of hand."

"Good."

"Of course, back of Blunk's hand now looks like Minnio's…"

Elyon sighed. Although she would never admit it, she was glad that Blunk was there and that they were on the move. She was sick of always sitting and waiting for people to rescue her. It was time she did something on her own, and saved herself.

Blunk did indeed know Kandrakar quite well, and navigated the two of them through the labyrinth of corridors without being seen.

"Blunk where are we going?" Elyon whispered.

"The Cathedral of Converse." Blunk whispered back.

"The what?"

"Big room where we contact home. Kandrakar have funny names for everything. It weird."

"I thought Endarno blocked communications." Elyon said, quickly changing the conversation back to the current situation. "We're not going to be able to talk to anyone on Meridian."

"Don't worry." Blunk replied. "Blunk know how to disable jamming device. Blunk super spy!"

"Shhhhh!"

"Sorry."

"So let me see if I've got this right." Elyon said. "We get to this Chamber of whatever, disable the jamming device, contact Meridian, and they pick us up?"

"That plan!" Blunk replied.

The unlikely pair successfully made their way to the Chamber of Converse, narrowly avoiding detection multiple times. The Chamber was a large, dark and almost empty room. The walls were lined with what looked to Elyon like large television screens. A large glowing sphere of energy in the center provided the room with light. A small, vase like device below the sphere was producing a cage of energy that kept the sphere contained.

"There." Blunk said, pointing to the device, "That what stop screens from working. That what stop us from talking with Meridian!"

"Great." Elyon said. "Let's see what I…"

"I thought I might find you here!" came a voice from behind Elyon.

She spun to find Endarno entering the room, a scowl on his face.

Elyon looked around her, but found no means of escape. The room had only one exit and Endarno was blocking it.

"Oracle, thank goodness you're here!" Blunk said. "I had just found her, and was about to alert you!"

Elyon shot Blunk a confused look, and then quickly caught on to his plan. He still looked like Minnio, and to Endarno, he was. That was quick thinking, she thought. Whoever taught him did his job well.

"Excellent work Minnio." Endanro said, oblivious to the deception. "I found your cell empty, Elyon, and assumed you'd call for help."

"And you came personally to get me." Elyon replied. "How sweet."

"I have always believed that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." Endarno said. "Why trust elders when I can handle it without error?"

"Well, someone's pretty sure of themselves." Elyon replied.

"And as for you Elyon," Endarno continued, "I expected more from you. I give you shelter, feed you, bear you no ill will, and yet still you rebel. Why?"

"I am not your pet." Elyon said through gritted teeth. "You ask me why I rebel? I ask you, why am I here? What makes me so important that you go to all this trouble to capture me, then do nothing with me once I'm here?"

Much to Elyon's surprise, Endarno laughed.

"You think this is about you?" He said. "Elyon my dear, you are of such little consequence to me, you might as well be a speck of dust. I dabble with powers and fates much larger then yours. My plans are of…"

WHAM!

While Endarno had been talking to Elyon, Blunk had snuck behind Endarno and used the screen like devices to climb the wall. Once he was above and behind Endarno, he had leapt from the wall, crashing down hard on the back of Endarno's head. Both Oracle and passling hit the ground hard, but only Blunk got back to his feet.

"Warrior Blunk to the rescue!" Blunk shouted triumphantly, standing over the fallen body of Endarno.

"Well done Blunk." Elyon said with a smile. "Although this does put us on a bit of a timeline. Endarno's going to wake up in a couple of minutes, and I'd prefer not to be here when he does. You sure you know how to get these screens working again?"

"Of course." Blunk said, walking towards the vase-like object in the center of the room.

He walked around the object several times, analyzing it for any weaknesses. Then, just as Elyon was beginning to get nervous, he gave the object a sharp kick. It fell over and rolled harmlessly into the corner. The sphere of energy shed it's restricting prison and expanded to greater size. Slowly, tendrils of energy wandered from the sphere and connected to the many screens.

"Great, now what?" Elyon said, tapping on one of the screens.

As she touched the screen, a beam of light shone down on her from above, illuminating the spot on which she stood.

"Um, Blunk?"

"Don't worry, it always do that. Just think of Meridian, and poof!"

Elyon wasn't exactly sure what 'poof' meant, but she decided to risk it. She closed her eyes and thought of Meridian. When she opened them again, she found herself hovering over the throne room of Meridian. The room was empty except for a small, older man cleaning the floors.

"Uh, hello?" Elyon said.

From the janitors' point of view, Elyon's disembodied head had suddenly appeared above him. For anyone else, this might be unsettling, but this man had worked at the castle for 25 years, even when Phobos was ruler. There was nothing that could surprise him anymore.

"Oh, hello." He said calmly. "I suppose you want Caleb and the others. I'll go get them."

"Oh, uh, thanks." Elyon's head replied. "That's very nice of you."

The man sauntered off and a few seconds later, the Honor Guard, followed by the Guardians rushed into the room.

"Elyon!" Caleb and Cornelia shouted in unison.

"Hi everyone!" Elyon said. Then she noticed the Guardians.

"Girls! You got your wings back!"

"Yep, we're back and ready to rescue you!" Irma said.

"Actually, I've done that on my own, thank you very much." Elyon replied.

"Yeah, where are you?" Hay Lin asked. "And what's with the glowing head thing?"

"Yeah, no offense, but I think I get to ask the first question here." Elyon replied. She moved to the side and Blunk's head appeared next to her.

"What's he doing here?" She asked.

"Don't look at me." Caleb said, backing up. "This was all Aldran's idea."

"Is this true?" Elyon asked Aldarn.

"Well, yes. It was my idea." Aldarn said.

"Well it's a good idea." Elyon replied.

"What?" Caleb and Aldarn said at the same time.

Even Aldarn had to admit that sending Blunk to Kandrakar was risky to say the least. He had expected to be chewed out by Elyon, not congratulated.

"He saw a potential threat in Kandrakar, and he did something about it." Elyon said. "That's exactly the kind of forward thinking we need."

Aldarn turned and gave Caleb a big smile.

"See? Told you it was a good idea." he said.

Caleb rolled his eyes.

"Are you okay Elyon?" Cornelia asked, ignoring the men beside her.

"Yeah, I'm fine Cornelia." Elyon replied.

"What did they do to you?" Taranee asked.

"Nothing. That's the thing. They didn't even talk to me. They just left me in some room."

"Strange." Will said. "Why bring you to Kandrakar if they do nothing with you?"

"I don't know." Elyon replied. "But I think Endarno's up to something. He caught us disabling the jamming device. He was saying something about his plans before Blunk knocked him out. It sounds pretty big."

"Say that one more time." Irma said. "Blunk knocked Endarno out?"

"Yep. Right in the back of the head." Elyon replied.

"Blunk action hero!" Came Blunk's voice from beside Elyon.

"Which reminds me, we better get out of here soon, before he wakes up."

"Queen Elyon," Buchan interrupted, "I assume that you removed the device in the Chamber of Converse that was stopping us from communicating with Kandrakar?"

"Um, who are you?" Elyon said, eyeing Buchan suspiciously.

"He's a friend." Caleb said. "Trust me."

"Good enough for me." Elyon replied. "Yeah, we removed the device. Or at least kicked it over."

"That device is the same one that stops travel to and from Kandrakar. The Guardians should be able to use the Heart to reach Kandrakar."

"Good." Will said. "I think it's time we had a nice long chat with Endarno."

"You guys coming?" Irma said, turning to the Honor Guard.

"You know we would like to be there," Julian said, "but Kandrakar might not take kindly to Meridian forces attacking. They could retaliate with an attack on us, and Meridian does not want to get in a war with Kandrakar."

"Well," Aldarn said, "I am the official head of the Meridian military. And as such, I can order you not to go to Kandrakar. But if you were to disobey that order, like you always do, then Meridian would no longer be responsible for your actions. That way, if Kandrakar gets mad, they would only kill you and not us."

"Good." Caleb said. "I think."

"Guardians, there is a hallway right below the Chamber that Elyon is currently in. Do you know it?" Buchan asked.

"Big, tall and lots of columns? Yeah, we we're in there when Nerissa attacked."

"Excellent. Elyon, head to that hallway, it would be a good spot for you to meet up with the others." Buchan said.

"Got it." Elyon said. "Girls, Endarno's starting to stir, so I'm heading out. Good luck."

"You too." Will replied.

"So, what's the plan?" Irma said once Elyon's head had disappeared.

"I'll fold the Honor Guard to Elyon." Will began. "Get her back to Meridian as quickly as you can. With any luck, no one will even know you were there."

"Sounds good." Caleb said, drawing his sword.

"What about the five of you?" Raythor asked.

"We go after Endarno. We need to make sure this doesn't happen again." Will replied.

"Well? What are we waiting for?" Cornelia asked.

Will smiled, and opened two folds. In a flash of blue, the Guardians and the Honor Guard were back in Kandrakar.